The role that public schools should play in citizenship education is addressed. Two questions are: (1) Should public schools provide citizenship education in the early years for all age groups? and (2) Should schools teach citizenship as an integrated set of values, not as an isolated affect toward country? The task of citizenship education as defined in the study is to teach favorable attitudes toward eight societal components: country, state, neighborhood, voluntary membership organizations, religious organizations, school, home, and self. The sample for the study was 469 randomly selected students from Southeast Texas. A questionnaire was administered to 169 5th graders, 159 8th graders, and 141 11th graders. It sought to measure their values toward the eight societal components. Results showed that, quantitatively speaking, values to societal components were as high, or higher, at the 5th grade, as they were at the 8th or 11th grade. The fact that students' values appear to have been assimilated by the 5th grade makes a strong case for teaching citizenship education in the early grades. From a statistical standpoint, a values "slump" did exist at the 8th grade in reference to five of the components. Not only does citizenship education need to be taught at an early age, it needs to be maintained at a consistently high level throughout public school. The results also showed a high degree of interrelatedness for most of the components. (RM)